From Russia with Love (1963)

James Bond willingly falls into an assassination plot involving a naive Russian beauty in order to retrieve a Soviet encryption device that was stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

Director:

Terence Young

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay), Johanna Harwood (adaptation)

Stars:

Sean Connery, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Daniela Bianchi	...	Tatiana Romanova
Pedro Armendáriz	...	Ali Kerim Bey (as Pedro Armendariz)
Lotte Lenya	...	Rosa Klebb
Robert Shaw	...	Donald 'Red' Grant
Bernard Lee	...	'M'
Eunice Gayson	...	Sylvia Trench
Walter Gotell	...	Morzeny
Francis De Wolff	...	Vavra (as Francis de Wolff)
George Pastell	...	Train Conductor
Nadja Regin	...	Kerim's Mistress
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Aliza Gur	...	Vida
Martine Beswick	...	Zora (as Martin Beswick)
Vladek Sheybal	...	Kronsteen

Storyline

James Bond 007 is on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as "Lektor". Bond needs to find this machine, before the evil S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization discovers it. While being romantically linked with Russian girl, Tatiana Romanova, Bond sneaks his way around Istanbul, while each S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent tries to pick him off, including the over powering Donald "Red" Grant and ex K.G.B. Agent Rosa Klebb, who knows all of the tricks in the book, and even possesses an incredible poison tipped shoe.

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Plot Keywords:

butt slap | mauser c96 pistol | mauser pistol | mauser | raki | 

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Taglines:

VIVA James Bond !

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

MGM [United States]

Country:

UK

Language:

English Russian Turkish Romany

Release Date:

27 May 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

From Russia with Love

Filming Locations:

Leckuary Farm, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$24,796,765

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$24,808,046

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As a guest on the The Tonight Show (1962), Robert Shaw said that he was required to stand on a wooden crate (an "apple box" as they are called on movie sets) when filming scenes opposite Sir Sean Connery, since he was four inches shorter than Connery.

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Goofs

Making their escape by train, Bond and Tatiana are given cover documents to aid their escape. Bond tells Tatiana that they are Mr & Mrs David Somerset and that her cover name is Caroline. They briefly discuss the particulars of their cover identities and from that point on they should assume that they are being observed, so should always maintain their covers. Just a moment later, James opens the compartment door and loudly calls her "Tania". No well-trained spy would ever make such a basic mistake.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Morzeny: [after Grant kills a look-a-like Bond] Exactly one minute, fifty-two seconds. That's excellent.

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Crazy Credits

Ernst Blofeld's actor is credited as "?".

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Alternate Versions

ABC broadcasts in the mid-1970s omitted the pre-credits sequence.

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Connections

Followed by GoldenEye (1995)

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Soundtracks

James Bond Theme
Music by Monty Norman
Arrangement by John Barry

User Reviews

Best of the Bonds?

The first three Bonds (Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger) are without question the best in the series, though From Russia with Love may well be the best of the best. It has all things we look for in a great Bond film - exotic locales, sinister villains, beautiful women - but it was made before Goldfinger established the ingenious-yet-demented-supervillain-plus-indestructible-henchman formula as canonical, so its plot line may surprise viewers reared on the later Bond films. For one thing, there's little or nothing in the way of gadgetry (though Q does provide our hero with a pretty nifty briefcase). Beyond a brief encounter with the faceless Number One, there's no arch-villain looming over the action, and the henchmen are at once less invulnerable and more interesting than most of their successors in the series. Particularly memorable, of course, are Lotte Lenya as the hatchet-faced Colonel ("She's had her kicks") Kleb and Robert Shaw as the brutish Donald "Red" Grant. Kleb's edgy menace is neatly offset by her terror at the prospect of failure (an option which Number One refuses to countenance); her subtle come-on to Tatiana Romanova was positively daring by 1963 standards, and she manages to do for footwear what Goldfinger's Odd Job went on to do for head gear. Grant is no superman, but a vicious, small-time thug, recruited by SPECTRE and transformed into a fearsome enforcer; his bitter encounter with Bond on the train speaks volumes about the class tensions that still underlay British society in the post-war era.

Connery, for his part, gets to build on the character he first fleshed out in Dr. No. His Bond really emerges here as a complex man, formidable but flawed. He's genteel and sophisticated, but he doesn't always keep his cool; unlike the too-often unflappable Roger Moore, Connery's Bond betrays both anger and fear when the circumstances seem to warrant it. He intervenes chivalrously to stop a fight between two Gypsy women, but he's not above slugging a woman in the service of his mission. I've always enjoyed the humanizing chemistry between Connery and Pedro Armendariz's larger-than-life Kerim ("I've led a fascinating life") Bey, the most charming of Bond sidekicks; their friendship comes across as genuine and multi-dimensional. Today's viewers (especially women) will likely find Daniela Bianchi's Tanya ("I LOVE you, James") Romanova an uncomfortably passive damsel-in-distress, but, hey: she's drop-dead gorgeous and has some nice scenes with Connery. The Turkish and Balkan settings are spectacular and the train sequence at the end is both exciting and suspenseful. Cold War scenario notwithstanding, this one has aged very well. Shake yourself a pitcher of vodka martinis and spend a Friday night watching Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.